Waterloo’s Scott Buttinger signs his letter of intent for Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. The Resurrection Catholic Secondary School grad received an NCAA track and field scholarship and plans to study computer engineering.

Making his mark

By Jordan Ercit, Chronicle Staff

Deep down inside, analytical engineering has been calculating answers to the complex problems in Scott Buttinger’s life.

Playing the odds, analyzing the numbers. Crunching the stats is what led the Waterloo native away from the hockey rink as a local AA and AAA player and toward the track, where the Laurel Creek Track and Field Club member excels at middle distances.

“I’m still playing high school hockey, because it’s kind of tough to give it up after playing for so many years — I still love it,” the Grade 12 Resurrection Catholic Secondary School student. “Unfortunately, I came to the realization that I’m not going to the NHL.”

“That was the analytical engineer coming out,” his mom, Pam, said. “He had to play the odds.”

Which makes it ironic Scott followed his heart with his most recent decision.

Yes, analytical engineering, specifically computer engineering, was a major player in Buttinger’s post-high school graduation plans. But the chance to study and earn an NCAA track and field scholarship at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., came down to something bigger.

A dream of taking his computing skills to Silicon Valley.

“I knew California would always be his path eventually,” Pam said. “If it wasn’t through school, it was somewhere I believed he would eventually end up. He’s so good in the engineering and interested in all those areas — math and computers — that Gord (Scott’s dad) and I figured he’d be there one day.”

So did Scott.

“I probably talked about going to Stanford in Grade 8 or 9,” he said, “but it was only a dream back then. I had no plan of getting there and what I would do because I was still doing multiple sports back then.

“I guess it’s kind of crazy for me, looking back, how it all worked out.”

It was also a bit of an accident Scott stumbled into the discipline that earned him a scholarship.

Mostly a 400- and 800-metre in high school — he won 800-metre silver at the 2012 OFSAA track and field championship — Scott started running 1,500-metre race on a more consistent basis last season on the advice of his Laurel Creek coach, Tom Fitzgerald.

He was able to crack the four-minute mark by June and July at the London Distance Series meet and the National Track League finale in Toronto. At the latter, Scott was stuck in traffic but was able to pull on his singlet in time, by mere minutes, for the race. However, it was at the London Distance Series meet last June that Scott ended up attracting 25 to 30 scholarship offers, which he eventually narrowed down to the University of Texas, Rice University, Princeton University, Harvard University and Stanford.

“Last year, it wasn’t necessarily on a whim, but my coach, Fitz, wanted to try me in more 1,500s and I was able to drop down to 3:47 (at London) from my previous personal best of 4:09 in Grade 10,” Scott said.

“It was nice to get that recognition right away from all the coaches and have them a lot more interested than they were before.”

As a result, Scott, the only male out of seven siblings in the family, is the fourth Buttinger to head south on an NCAA scholarship. Oldest sister Maddie wrapped her final year at Notre Dame in 2011-12 and won an NCAA Division-1 bronze last spring in women’s pentathlon to complete the journey.

The two sisters in between, Natalie and Jessica, play NCAA field hockey at Penn State and Duke University respectively.

It’s enough to make one wonder what is next: Two more Buttingers are on the horizon at Resurrection as Danielle and Emily helped Resurrection complete a three-peat at the recent OFSAA girls field hockey championship, while the youngest, Rachel, is in Grade 6.

One thing is for certain. If they are anything like their older siblings, Danielle, Emily and Rachel will find their own path to follow.

“They are all very independent and maybe it’s the fact they’re close in age and close as a family,” Pam said. “It gives them a chance to trail-blaze a little bit, kind of make their own mark.”